LIBERTY, NY — Sean Zigmund, who has a farming operation in White Sulphur Springs, has been railing against proposed zoning changes in the hamlet for months. He sent an email to supporters on October 19 declaring a victory in his battle against the plans put forward by the town board in the Town of Liberty.

The proposed amendments would have changed the designation of 45 parcels in White Sulphur Springs from Agricultural (AC) or Rural Development (RD) to Residential One (R1), having an impact on 653.53 acres of land. The hitch in the town’s plan was that 404.35 acres are located within an agricultural district that was adopted by Sullivan County and certified by New York State.

That status brings with it special protections. Zigmund complained about the proposed changes to the Sullivan County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board (AFPB), which in turn sought an opinion on the matter from the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (NYSAM). The department sent a letter outlining numerous points of possible problems with the town’s rezoning plan.

The letter from NYSAM said, “The sections of the draft amendments concerning special-use permits and site plan review is indicative of a process that is time consuming, expensive and, if applied to farm operations located within a county-adopted, state-certified agricultural district, unreasonably restrictive…

“In general, farm operations located within a county-adopted, state-certified agricultural district should be a permitted use, not a special use, under the Town of Liberty’s Zoning Code…

“Agri-business and agri-tourism in the AC and RD Zoning Districts are listed as requiring a special-use permit (SUP) from the town, which includes submission to site plan (SP) review. For those activities that are deemed to be part of a farm operation, the requirement to submit to SUP review and a lengthy SP review is, on its face, unreasonably restrictive in possible violation of the Ag & Markets Law.”

The letter also outlined other points in the proposed zoning that might violate the law. At the town meeting on October 17, Town of Liberty Supervisor Charlie Barbuti said the parcels in question would be removed from the proposed zoning changes.

Zigmund wrote in the email to his supporters, “This is certainly a victory, but the fight isn’t over.” He said there are elements of the zoning regulations that are proposed and currently in place that are illegal.

Zigmund has filed a complaint with the New York State Attorney General’s Public Integrity Bureau, which reads in part, “I am contacting your office because of my negative interactions and encounters with the town officials related to this matter and I’m finding that this entire ordeal is ‘unreasonable’ for our farmers to have to fight this ordeal—my wife and I being two of the farmers in our organized group of over 50 taxpayers who are fighting this.”